NDIS needs to be sustainable

As a long-term supporter of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, The Australian is keen to see it put on to a solid, sustainable footing to ensure security and quality of life for disabled Australians into the future. As we editorialised in May 2009: “Human compassion demands that the most vulnerable people in society must be protected, whatever their circumstance. And it is clear that Australia’s fractured, under-resourced disability support systems need an overhaul.” Bruce Bonyhady, the driving force behind the scheme, wrote at the time an NDIS would alleviate serious difficulties faced by most disabled people and their families. Too often, he said, such Australians became exhausted battling through a maze of inefficient paperwork and long waiting lists across jurisdictions. Too many parents were left worrying about who would care for disabled sons or daughters into the future.

The NDIS, proposed at the Rudd government’s 2020 Summit in 2008, was created by the Gillard government with the noblest intentions and bipartisan support. It has transformed many families’ lives, providing certainty and support. From the outset, reasonably, we questioned whether it was adequately funded. That issue has become more problematic during the past decade as participation has expanded, despite periodic attempts to rein in costs and grapple with issues such as how disabled a young autism sufferer, for example, needs to be supported under the scheme.

Financial crunch time has arrived, as social affairs editor Stephen Lunn reported on Monday. Fully funding all NDIS participants would cost taxpayers $50bn a year, more than twice the current budgeted $21bn, according to John Walsh, an NDIS board member from 2013 to last year. Mr Walsh’s submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the NDIS backs the introduction of an independent assessment process to determine “reasonable and necessary” funding for the scheme’s 430,000 participants. That number is set to reach 530,000 in 2023.

Mr Walsh, an associate commissioner of the Productivity Commission report that set out the case for the NDIS in 2011, warns if the costs of the scheme become prohibitive, there is the real danger the government may wind it up. Such a disaster would leave disabled Australians and their families in limbo. It must be avoided. However painstaking and challenging, reforming the scheme to put it on a sustainable footing is vital. The parliamentary review being undertaken by MPs and senators from all parties is an important starting point.